Open the Window
by dinosaurbreakfast
Summary: After a future predator attack, Abby falls ill with an unidentified virus. Soon, it becomes a race against time to stop what is quickly growing into an epidemic as more and more fall ill. But is all really as it seems?


"Shh-sh-sh. There now," whispered Connor Temple, echoing Abby's words as he cradled one of the children in his arms. The kids were hysterical, screaming in fear; the one he was holding had wet himself, the moist fabric apparent as Connor held the boy against his hip. His best friend, Abby Maitland, was holding a younger child to her, burying the toddler's head into her shoulder. They cast each other glances over the top the children's head. _We are in deep shit. _Out of bullets, out of exits, they had locked themselves in a room with the children, and were waiting for de facto leader Danny Quinn and the muscle, Becker, to come rescue them, perfectly willing to take all sarcastic quips and gloating in stride. "He who fights and runs away…" Connor always liked to point out.

It had been approximately a half hour since the anomaly detector's deafening sirens began echoing through the ARC's atrium, and about twenty minutes since they had been able to move the police and rescue crew out of the building, they stared ahead in shock, babbling about monsters. One of the firemen was found to be missing, along with three of the children, and one day care worker. They had discovered the body of a fireman inside the door, his chest and face unrecognizable, his flesh cleaved cleanly by some sharp-clawed monster. Inside the next room, they'd found the worker and one child. "You get them out," Danny ordered Becker. "We'll keep searching."

"The Anomaly should be in that room there," Connor had whispered. He pointed towards a door with a paper Santa taped to it. A soft, incongruous glow came from beneath the door, flickering strangely. "Maybe that's where the others are?"

Danny nodded. "Let's take a look, shall we?"

As he stepped forward a terribly familiar growl echoed around the corridor. All three heads snapped up as they stared in horror at the future predator, hanging impossibly from the ceiling and clicking. The predator's attention was diverted, though, as a little gasp cut through the air. "Oh my God!" yelped Abby. The predator began bounding towards the two little boys, tucked into the corner between a toy box and a bookshelf, as Danny frantically began firing at the creature. Abby and Connor began running, arms and legs pumping furiously as the scrambled to reach the children.

Abby slid into the predator's path first, wrapping her thin arms around the children and turning her back to the creature, waiting for that sharp, biting pain of the creature's claws. But none came. She looked up to see Danny hurling plastic toys across the room, shouting, "Oi! O'er here!" The predator, angered, gave an inhuman half-hiss, half-shriek as it lunged towards Danny, who took off running, firing over his shoulder. Over the din, he shouted, "Get outta here! Run!"

Heaving the children into their arms, and entwining their fingers, the two young members of the ARC team began rushing for the door, stumbling through the corridor as they raced for the door. They never made it. The predator lunged out of room, as Connor pushed Abby and the children into another, locking the door behind them. The cheap wood shuddered and shook as the enraged creature threw itself against it. And so they sat, waiting, and cradling the children in their arms.

_Temple, Abby, do you copy? _Becker's voice cam e crackling through the headsets, shockingly loud and distorted.

Connor sat up, shifting the child on his lap. "Er, yeah. We're still inside. The predator's got us trapped in a class room with a couple of kids." There was a long pause. "Becker, you there?"

White noise hissed briefly in their ears. _Still here. _There was the sound of crunching feet on gravel, as if Becker was already rushing back towards the day care centre with his men as he spoke. _How many children? _

"Two. Both boys."

_Would they be Jesse Elliot and Anders Jorgensen?_

"Are you Jesse and Anders?" Connor asked, looking down at the child in his lap.

The child on Abby's lap nodded before snuggling further into her arms. The little boy on his lap suddenly looked very indignant as he crossed his arms across his chest and huffed. "I'm Andy. Not stupid Anders."

Laughing, Connor replied, "It's them. Is Danny with you?"

_He just came back. Bit banged up, but he'll be fine. Any injured?_

"No."

_We'll be right there._

Connor shot Abby a look, as the future predator once again began ramming the door with new ferocity. The children whimpered and she watched as Connor's eyes grew wider, his breathing even, but forcefully so. Leaning down, Abby whispered to Jesse, "We're gonna be out any second. Our friends are gonna rescue us and bring you back to your mummy. Won't that be lovely?"

"What—" he sniffed, hiccupped, and started again, "What about the monster?"

"Our friend Becker will make it go away," Abby replied. The look she shot Connor communicated many unspoken things, but mostly it said, _I hope._

The sound of the front door being thrown up made everyone jump, but the classroom door held up. The hinges, though, were beginning to bend, though, and after years of college maths tournaments, Connor began to calculate how long it would take for the hinges to break altogether—it wasn't long. Becker's voice rose up in a hallway and there was a scream as gunfire burst forth outside of the hallway. The children yelped and buried themselves further into their young protectors' arms. The door stilled for a moment, but soon it began to buck again as weight was smashed into it. Abby screamed, and the children followed suit, as the door was forcefully thrown open to reveal…Becker.

"Quick, c'mon! It's run away, but it'll be back!" They stumbled up, heaving the children into their arms and running after Becker and a few of his men. "Hurry!"

The sudden shriek of the future predator caused them all to spin around. It came bounding towards them as Becker's men let off a volley of gunfire. Abby screamed, her knees buckling, as the creature's sharp claws raked across her shoulder blades. Jesse began to scream as they both tumbled to the ground. Becker caught them both, swinging the child into his arms and pulling Abby roughly to her feet as he urged everyone to run. The men kept shooting, bullets slammed into the creature's tough hide, blood spurting grotesquely from the wounds, as it began to stumble, its gate slowing to a lumbering plod. It took three slow steps, growing and hissing, before collapsing just into the centre's door.

Releasing the children, who immediately ran to their sobbing mothers, Connor rushed to his flatmate's side. "Abby? Abby, darling, look at me. Are you all right?"

Her eyes were half-lidded, her face contorted in pain as she gnashed her teeth together. "I'm fine," she replied, as her eyes rolled back into her head and she became limp in his arms.


End file.
